he was initially elected in the connecticut state senate in 1970. so 42 years he's been in public service. >> gretchen: 70 years old, now he's retiring. now it's time to look at weather situations. >> rick: look at the massive storm moving east. >> clayton: as dozens of christmas tornadoes terrorized the south last night. take a look. >> oh, my god, look. that's a tornado. oh, wow. look at that tornado. >> clayton: she was right. it was a tornado. eyewitness watching this monster trample through mobile, alabama. thousands of people waking up without power. >> when it calmed down, we looked and everything seemed green, like it was popping off transformers left and right and heard the noise and i took off and started walking down here. >> clayton: brutal winds tossed these cars on top of each other in mcneil, mississippi and left neighborhood a complete disaster zone. >> never seen one in real life and just to be able to hear one from that far away is about a mile from where we are. you can still hear it. it was pretty amazing. >> clayton: while toppl